Rich had been asked to present at an annual conference of scientists doing research at Kruger National Park in South Africa, so we had a great opportunity to see a "seasoned" park (Kruger is the largest and one of the oldest parks in southern africa) with an abundance of wildlife. Rich attended the conference by day as Ian and I explored the park in our truck. Kruger is very well developed - paved roads throughout the park, and even those roads that are gravel are passable in a standard car - no 4WD required. Very funny to see people in Mercedes Benzes and Volvos driving around on safari, so locked in our mind is the idea of safari in a truck...
On our first evening in the park -- actually as we raced against the clock to make the drive to our camp before the 6pm gate closure -- we saw lots of great animals: giraffe, impala, baboons, monkeys, kudu, warthogs, and -- the two great sights of the day -- a leopard and a white rhino, each of which we managed to see as they happened to be crossing the road on which we were driving. Not bad for a 90-minute drive! We managed to add water buffalo, crocs, hippos, hyena, elephant, tsessebe, and a variety of other grazers to our list during our 4-day stay. The hyena encounter was particularly exciting: we were driving in the dark on our way to the conference dinner when we came upon it across the street from the staff housing, not more than 20 feet from our vehicle!
Another great animal sighting happened during a conference dinner at the golf course - the resident hippo of the golf course pond ambled up onto the grass near the golf club where we were, grazing away! Ian was amazed to see an entire hippo not more than 50 feet from where he stood...
It was particularly interesting to be in Kruger with an eye to developing our own park. What aspects of the park did I like as a tourist? what things would I change? What amenities were available for staff? The camp where we stayed, Skukuza, is the main headquarters of the park where the majority of the park staff live (in a "village" next to but well-isolated from the tourist camp), so the staff facilities are quite good: a gym, playing fields, a large swimming pool equiped for a swim team, a golf course (! ok so we don't want that at our park), and much more. It looked like a pretty comfortable place to live.
On our first evening in the park -- actually as we raced against the clock to make the drive to our camp before the 6pm gate closure -- we saw lots of great animals: giraffe, impala, baboons, monkeys, kudu, warthogs, and -- the two great sights of the day -- a leopard and a white rhino, each of which we managed to see as they happened to be crossing the road on which we were driving. Not bad for a 90-minute drive! We managed to add water buffalo, crocs, hippos, hyena, elephant, tsessebe, and a variety of other grazers to our list during our 4-day stay. The hyena encounter was particularly exciting: we were driving in the dark on our way to the conference dinner when we came upon it across the street from the staff housing, not more than 20 feet from our vehicle!
Another great animal sighting happened during a conference dinner at the golf course - the resident hippo of the golf course pond ambled up onto the grass near the golf club where we were, grazing away! Ian was amazed to see an entire hippo not more than 50 feet from where he stood...
It was particularly interesting to be in Kruger with an eye to developing our own park. What aspects of the park did I like as a tourist? what things would I change? What amenities were available for staff? The camp where we stayed, Skukuza, is the main headquarters of the park where the majority of the park staff live (in a "village" next to but well-isolated from the tourist camp), so the staff facilities are quite good: a gym, playing fields, a large swimming pool equiped for a swim team, a golf course (! ok so we don't want that at our park), and much more. It looked like a pretty comfortable place to live.
